Journalism students in the Spring 2017 News Writing (JRN 300) course, under the direction of Cindy Simoneau, reviewed the Clery Report from the four Connecticut Universities and UConn. Students worked under senior project leaders Jeniece Roman and Sandra Gomez-Aceves. Project reporters were Melissa Nunez, Sherly Montes, Ali Sorbara, Alex Palmieri, Lynandro Simmons, Karlie Borges, Megan Grabowski and Brittany Howard. Senior Dan Zumpano supervised surveys with team members Adrianna Rochester, Chris Kuczo, Mihai Tripp, Jared Klim and Abigail O’Keefe.
Drug and alcohol use lay among the largest numbers reported by the five public univiersities, their 2016 Clery Reports showed.
Connecticut’s largest public university, UConn, drew attention when an underage student, whose blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal blood alcohol content limit, was run over by a university fire truck and killed earlier this year. A few months later another intoxicated underage student died, this time from CEntral, after she fell off a Hartford bar’s roof.
Those incidents prompted statewide attention to the topic of alcohol use by underage students and on campus settings by both media outlets and government agencies.
Read the full story at the Southern News here or download a PDF of the story here and here.
Featured image: Southern’s Police Chief Joseph Dooley, Director of Residence Life Robert DeMezzo and Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Conduct Christopher Piscitelli addressed issues pertaining to the 2016 campus Clery Report and how they, in their different roles, treat and process campus crimes. | Adrianna Rochester photo